1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to application development and more specifically, but not exclusively, to facilitating the creation of new types of functions defining the behavior of an application.
2. Background Information
Embedded system development tools assist users in the creation of applications to be programmed into processing devices such as microcontrollers. One existing embedded system development tool allows a system designer to create an embedded application by combining system input and output (I/O) devices such as LEDs, switches, sensors and fans. The embedded system development tool provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that uses I/O device drivers to represent I/O devices to a user. The GUI also presents to a user various functions that define the behavior of an application. The user can select one of these functions and customize it for the specified I/O devices.
The functions presented to the user are of predefined types. Each function type has a distinct logic that is hard coded in the embedded system design tool. If a new function type needs to be added, the embedded system development tool has to be modified to incorporate the new function type. The modified embedded system development tool is then recompiled and shipped to the customers.